As parents, we have always focused on selecting the best school for our children, tracked their progress, monitored accomplishments, planned theircareer pathand helped them make better life decisions. Parental guidanceplays a critical role in shaping a child’s success. Parents play a key role in buildinga child’s character, instilling confidence, strengthening academics and ensuring personal well-being. All bright, young minds need proper care, attention and guidance of parents to reach the pinnacle of success. Therefore, it is the duty of every parent to identify and support the learning potential of a child and contribute for his/her growth and development. How can parents boost the learning potential of their child?
These top 9 ways will helpthe parents enhance the learning potential in their children.
Read out loud: One of the most important things the parents can dois to support the children with the daily lessons taught in class and help revise them. They can also use this time to ask questions and discuss the answers. It is a great way to teach the make the children responsible for their learning choices, consequences and promote a positive learning attitude.
Treat daily experiences as teaching opportunities: If parents want their children to learn beyond subject boundaries, they should discuss daily routines, experiences and life situations so that they provide practical learning opportunities to their children. Narrating motivational stories and taking tips from their children’s teachers will also help.
Track what your child is studying at school: Parents should talk to their children casually and understand what excites them most about each subject. Speaking to their children’s class teacher about their performance and progress will provide insights into teaching-learning scenario in class. Parents must analyse and identify the areas they need help in and support them accordingly. Regular interactions with the teacher and conscious hand holding will help bring stability to the academicimprovement in children.
Check sleeping patterns & eating habits: Parents should ensure that their childrenget sufficient sleep every day. They should also ensure that their children have a balanced diet withhealthy, nutritious and energy rich food, to stay healthy and use the energy for learning effectively. Children who follow a healthy routine, tend to show good academic performance by way of focused attention and cognitive functioning.
Keep in touch with your child’s teacher: Parents should never miss any parents-teachers meeting scheduled in school. Such regular interactions will help them steer their children’s progress in performance appropriately.
Practice discipline at home: Home is the child’s first school. Discipline needs to be followed by parents at home first so that,parents can help their children understand the importance of it in school and at home.
Set challenging expectations: Every child’s success and performance is directly proportionaltothe parent’s expectation meter. Setting high and challenging expectations does not mean that pressurizing children to score perfectlyin every assignment. It only means that the parents have set a challenging goal for their child and they are encouragingthem to meet the expectations set.
Conduct surprise tests at home: Conducting surprise tests will help the child to stay active and alert mentally, all the time. This will also encourage them to study well in advance to get good scores. It will check their understanding, retention power and learning potential. Giving them a week to prepare for exams will give them a lot of time, but surprise tests will be challenging for them.
Offer Rewards & Incentives: Rewards keep the children motivated to do their schoolwork and study well. A simple incentive, to offer a fun activity or their favourite toy once all homework and the studies is done will keep the children motivated. It could even be watching cartoons on Television, playing a game or going outside to play,with friends.
These helpful tips will not only keep the parents and their children connected but, be responsible for their learningand help them track their children’s progress. This will also help them shape a secure and a prosperous future for their children.
